Shadows Of Another World
by Akumakagemaru
Summary: The Shadow Mirrors may have failed, but their ideals live on - as does System-XN. The Gate of Aguieus opens once more...Britannia and the Black Knights will never be the same.


Staring out at the plains and small hills around them, a man with a scar across his face stands at the bridge of the Kurogane, one of the only three Noah-class battleships ever constructed, and designated as his ship to lead, while the Colonel himself took the Hagane, and the mad scientist - currently working deep in the bowels of the Hagane - would lead the Shirogane, the least combative of the three, and whose guts had been almost completely replaced, turning it into a heavily armed floating laboratory, with all of the facilities needed to at least construct and repair new mecha. He was given command of the Kurogane because of the massive drill, its greatest weapon, which was best suited to melee combat, much like himself. The Colonel had chosen the Hagane because its powerful Tronium Cannon would allow him to fight best at his preferred distance - long range, where he could observe and plan. The arrangement suited them all quite well, particularly after swapping some of the Kurogane's long range weaponry for the Hagane's close range guns, leaving just enough to allow options, but still reinforcing their strengths.

Lt. Colonel Sam Slater scowled at the viewscreen before him, observing the quickly approaching task force that had been sent to retake the coveted battleships, as well as its cargo, the Thrudgelmir and - most importantly - the Zweizergain. Few people, even in the task force, truly understood the importance of the Zweizergain, and were thus confused about the orders to, if they could not recapture the battleships, then to destroy them utterly. The top brass had made it perfectly clear that allowing them to escape was not an option, which was also the reason the task force was packing enough total firepower to raze all of China to the ground. more than a thousand each of Gespensts and Lions, with a few hundred each of the more powerful Huckebein Mk-II mass production models, and Guarlions, for the officers. Roughly four dozen Rhinoceras tanks to provide artillery support and mobile bases. And of course, the shock troops - the heroes of the L5 Campaign and the more recent war against the Inspectors. Sanger Zonvolt with Dygenguard, Ratsel Feinschmecker with Aussenseiter, Masaki Andoh with Cybuster, Excellen Browning with Weissritter, Kyosuke Nanbu with Alteisen Riese, Brooklyn Luckfield and Kusuha Mizuha with Ryukooh, Lune Zoldark with Valsione, and Team SRX, Ryusei Date, Raidiese F. Brainstein, and Aya and Mai Kobayashi, with the R-series and R-gun. All in all, more dangerous than the entire normal task force. Several favors had been called in to assemble this team, and much persuasion used.

_'If that bunch reaches us, we're toast. Not even Zwei and Thrudgelmir have that kind of power...' _He glances over at the officer in charge of communications. "Ask Furchtegott how much longer it'll be till we're ready to jump." The officer quickly fumbled with the controls, startled out of the stunned fear caused by the sight of the task force, and stopped dead when he heard the voice of the Colonel. "Don't bother...I already asked. He says it'll be another ten minutes at least before the data will be finished uploading, and probably another ten to fifteen minutes before the Hagane can charge enough power for it to jump with all three battleships. Any sooner, and it won't be able to take them all to our destination. I don't think I need to tell you that isn't an option." The grim face of Moloch Siegfried filled the small viewscreen on the bridge for the Captain's personal communications. "Colonel, got any plans? Or...are we that short?" If possible, the Colonel's face darkened even further, his gaze losing focus as his mind started working overtime trying to analyze the scenario. "...No. I have several plans that might work, but they would all require several minutes to prepare - minutes we don't have."

Slater stared at the Colonel for a long moment, then closed his eyes, nodded, and smirked, opening his eyes as he spoke. "Prepare the Magnarail Launcher. Warm the Thrudgelmir up for me." He stood up and started walking towards the hangar, shrugging out of his heavy jacket in preparation for donning his pilot suit when the voice of Colonel Siegfried stopped him. "Slater! That launcher is untested! You can't use it! And on top of that...we'll have to leave as soon as the ship reaches critical power levels...if you're not on board, you might get left behind." Slater closed his eyes again, still wearing that cocky smirk that had become second nature, and replied, "Colonel, you really don't trust my abilities? Besides, what better place to test it? If anything can survive a malfunction, it'll be Thrudgelmir. Now sit tight, make your preparations, and let me do my job. You can't order me to sit back, old friend."

The Magnarail Launcher was a prototype system, originally concieved during the L5 Campaign, but due to budgetary issues and other military concerns, it had never gotten off the ground. Now, with the considerable resources both stolen and acquired through mercenary services, it was imagination turned into reality. Based along the principles of the railgun, it operated almost identically. A long tube, lined with magnets, which would activate in a spiraling sequence, hurtling a metal projectile at high speed towards the enemy, with the spin added for stabilization and accuracy. The divergence between the standard railgun and the Magnarail was that, rather than a bullet, the projectile was a shell, a capsule which after leacing the tube, would split, ejecting the loaded mecha, and the shell would be recalled, through the use of heavy magnet-tipped cables which were also released with the mecha, latching into a predetermined point through the use of an equally powerful magnet embedded in the hull. Currently, after being propelled at extremely high velocity and spinning with a force of what felt like at least 3Gs, Sam Slater was deciding that the next time he used the Magnarail, he was going to have a long, drawn out discussion with Furchtegott about dialing up the inertial compensation. _'After all, it doesn't do any good to reach them faster if I'm unconcious! Idiot scientists..'_

Nonetheless, the launch was entirely successful, and had taken the task force by surprise, not only by deploying a single machine to face them, but at such high speed. Sanger was the first to realize the danger. _'That...it can't be...Thrudgelmir was destroyed! But...' _His eyes widened slighlty as he saw the pilot deploying the signature Colossal Blade of the Thrudgelmir, and quickly began to reverse course, turning around almost on a dime for such a large piece of equipment, and screamed into the airwaves, "Reverse course! He's attacking!" The more experienced soldiers and all of the L5 heroes on the frontline managed to listen, reversing their course, whether on land or in the air, with Cybuster and Valsione leading the pack. The less experienced recruits, however, were not so lucky, and in the span of several seconds after meeting their frontline, Lions and Gespents alike were torn apart by the extended, whirling Colossal Blade, clearing a path several hundred feet deep in any direction before landing, having claimed the lives of dozens of EFA pilots within the opening assault, and only narrowly blocking the similiarly sized blade of the Dygenguard, which managed to force him to one knee after catching it off guard, not being stable enough after the rapid spin to gain a proper footing.

Sanger gritted his teeth, slightly unnerved at how quickly their formation had been decimated, and keenly feeling the death of every soldier whose machine now lay in smoldering ruins behind him."You...!" Slater just grinned, excited and revitalized at realizing he had managed to shake the infamous Sanger Zonvolt, the "Sword That Smites Evil", however slightly. "Oh? What about me? This is war. Battle. People die, you know that better than anyone." With that, he regained his footing, shoving Dygenguard back suddenly, and taking advantage of the distraction to stand, setting his feet into a proper stance. "Or maybe you're more angry at the machine? You have quite a history with this thing, or so I hear..." He launched himself at Sanger, and swords clashed, each swordsman virtually flying across the battlefield, meeting each other again and again, now silent but for the carnage around them, the Shirogane, Kurogane, and Hagane having moved closer, just enough to provide harassing fire, and keep the other soldiers from swarming and overwhelming the Lieutenant.

Meanwhile, in the bridge of the Hagane, Moloch Siegfried frowned, unwilling to consider the consequences if the ships were to fail the formation, and fail to break through. Not only would the loss of the Thrudgelmir be a sizable loss to their offense, or even the loss of a skilled and experienced pilot to their forces, but the loss of Slater himself would be a detriment, being the first person to understand his goals and desires, their friendship born through the heat of battle, and the fires of war. His eyes narrowed as he gazed at the enemy forces surrounding his second-in-command. _'No...this will work...and we will find our new world!'_

Slater glanced at his power levels, quickly depleting from not only doing battle a mecha of equal strength and durability, but occasionally firing off Drill Knuckle attacks to fend off the more daring of Sanger's companions, and glanced at the thin, nearly invisible scar in his palm. _'Heh...guess I might not make it after all...sorry, my blood brother, looks like I won't see your dream made real...but I'll make sure you do!' _His eyes narrowed, and he stopped using Drill Knuckle, focusing all of his power on destroying the Dygenguard, now no longer concerned with surviving, but with making enough of a threat to draw the more powerful members of the task force, allowing Siegfried to make his escape. Suddenly, the Dygenguard abandoned its attack mid-way, and retreated. Confused, Slater turned around - and was slightly surprised to see the spinning drill of the Kurogane, just several hundred feet distant, and closing quickly. After the surprise wore off, he looked around it, and noticed the shapes of first the Hagane, then the Shirogane.

"Lieutenant Slater, your ride is here. I suggest you hop on quickly, as we're on a bit of a tight schedule." Slater grinned at the wry humor of the Colonel, and obeyed, gladly latching on to the Kurogane, and climbing up its side, careful to avoid obscuring the path of the anti-air gun turrets, and prepared to settle in, after realizing the time constraint was nearly up. "You didn't really think I'd just leave you here to die, did you, Sam?" "Of course not, Colonel. Never doubted you for a second." "Sure you didn't. And that wasn't your famous berserker frenzy you has just dug into back there." Chuckling under his breath at Moloch, knowing how familiar they were with each other, and thankful for the rescue, most likely never spoken, but understood regardless.

The Zweizergain's power became tangible quickly, and he could feel the energy warping time and space, and held tightly to the Kurogane's hull as it entered the wormhole, and quickly realized just how much he had underestimated the strength of the gate, as the Thrudgelmir was torn from the ship, and they separated. Seconds later, with a flash of light, Slater woke, and realized he must've lost conciousness, especially after feeling the blood dripping down his skull, and seeing one of the less vital displays smashed.

He looked around, observing the new world, the land around him green and vibrant, obviously springtime, with hills and mountains...and one very distictive mountain visible in the distance. _'Well, at least that answers that question...I'm in Japan.'_ He looked around again, and turned his attention towards the sound of something large moving towards him. He was slightly surprised when, rather than a single, larger machine appeared, a dozen humanoid machines rolled up the hill, all stopping unceremoniously, clearly surprised themselves. Finally, one of them, most likely the leader, found his nerve, lfting his rifle, and the others followed. "H-halt! In the name of the Emperor, I order you to power down your Knightmare, and show yourself!" Staring at the machines, Slater was silent. _'Well, now I also know that technology here is, at the very least, on a similar level to ours...but those machines are so small! Even a Gespenst is a bit bigger than that!' _Meanwhile, the Britannian soldiers were thinking along similar lines. "That Knightmare...I've never seen one like it, is it some kind of prototype from Pendragon?" "Maybe its Japanese?" "You idiot, Japanese can't build something like that!" "Whatever it is, it's huge! How are we supposed to fight something like that if he doesn't obey?"

Their conversation was interrupted by a surprising reply. "Look, guys, I don't even know who this Emperor is, alright? Why don't you run along, and forget you ever saw me, eh? I've had enough bloodshed for one day, luckily for you." The leader of the Brittanians moved forward, and lifted his rifle to shoot. "Such arrogance towards His Majesty must be punished! Submit, or be slain!"

Slater's eyes narrowed, and he moved the Thrudgelmir closer. _'Fine, have it your way...time for some practice...' _He quickly activated the Colossal Blade, and launched a pair of Drill Knuckles, destroying the two on the outside edges of the loose formation. Taken by surprise, the leader quickly fired, and the remaining Sutherland's copied him, the massive quantities of ammunition all but promising the destruction of the target - thus surprising them even more when he emerged, pockmarked but still very much functional, and thrust his sword forward, spearing two Knightmares at once, destroying them both, before sweeping his blade to the left, then the right, each movement destoying three more, till only the two furthest back remained, paralyzed with fear at the sudden, brutal, and utterly effective assault. "P-please, let me g-go! I won't shoot!" With that, the speaker dropped his rifle, and raised his Sutherland's hands in submission, his partner quickly deciding to follow suit.

"Sorry boys...now you've seen me...I can't leave witnesses." With that grim statement, a single diagonal slash put an end to both of them, leaving Slater the only survivor as he walked away, disabling the Colossal Blade till its needed once again, and seeking friend, knowing that his first goal must be to reunite. Thus the conquest of Japan flowed on, forgetting an incident of twelve Knightmares mysteriously being destroyed - almost forgotten, that is.

Resting upon the throne of the Holy Empire of Britannia, Charles di Britannia holds a small, portable viewscreen, watching a video, transmitted from the cockpit of one of the last two pilots in his final moments. A video of a machine more destructive than anything Britannia currently holds. "No one else has seen this video?" "No, Your Majesty. I thought it best to bring it directly to your attention." "Very well. You are dismissed." With a deep bow, the Intelligence officer quickly departed, unwilling to wear on the patience of the most powerful man on the planet. "So...who do you think it is?" Charles speaks without looking up, seemingly to no one, till a voice replies from behind him. "I don't know, Charles...I'm not omniscient. Besides, what does it matter? It will hardly be enough to interfere with our plans." "Perhaps..." But Charles remained unsure, frowning slightly down at the video, and deciding not to mention what the Intelligence officer had failed to state, or perhaps even notice. After a barrage of gunfire, the next sighting of the strange Knightmare was riddled with miniscule holes, which could be explained as simply being heavier armor. However, by the time the video ends, the armor appears unharmed, implying a machine several times more terrible than previously though - a machine capable of instantaneous self-regeneration. An immortal construct. For the first time in many decades, and certainly since he had ascended to the throne, Charles di Britannia felt worried - that for once, he might not be holding all the cards. _'You...who are you? The devil? A demon come to stop me? Or are you simply...?'_

It would be seven long years before any sighting of the strange artifact would surface, and the answers to his questions revealed.


End file.
